


The Girl Who Swallows Storms

by withered



Series: Roses (by another name) [8]
Category: Bleach
Genre: A:TLA - Freeform, Avatar: The Last Airbender inspired, BAMF Rukia, F/M, Firebender!Ichigo, Legends, Nothing graphic because I can't write it, Waterbender!Rukia, fairytales - Freeform, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered
Summary: Ichigo is appropriately terrified and awed.





	The Girl Who Swallows Storms

**Author's Note:**

> Also available on ffn

**Prompt:** Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legends

 

"It had to be a goddamn boat."

"How else did you think we were going to get across the ocean?" Uryuu asked dryly. "Flying bisons aren't exactly commonplace."

Huffing into his folded arms, Ichigo glared at the swaying horizon. "You're an air nomad, don't you know a guy?" He didn't have to shift his gaze to know Uryuu was glowering at him. With more difficulty than he cared to admit, Ichigo raised his head. "How many hours do we have?"

"Another six, at least."

Swallowing his groan (along with the bile accumulating in the base of his throat), Ichigo forced himself upright. "Alright, you've got everything covered here then?"

Not waiting for Uryuu to actually reply, Ichigo got on shaky legs and managed to get back inside, subtlety using the wall to keep his balance. Gods, this was fucking embarrassing.

When he first deserted the Fire Nation army, he didn't think he'd find himself here. Granted, with his goal to look for and assist the Avatar in a bid to overthrow Aizen's dictatorship, he supposed this could've been worse.

Why the hell did the Avatar have to be in the North Pole, though? Ichigo thought with a grumble, not for the first time.

As he made his way to his cabin, he heard Karin declare, "It's just a story!"

"They have the same one all over the coastal towns," Yuzu defended.

"Come on, a girl who can swallow storms? Isn't that a bit ridiculous?"

"We grew up on stories about Firebending dragons!"

"So," Karin argued, "there are flying bisons!"

"Girls," he interjected, hitting the door with an open palm before he continued his trudge down the hallway. "Keep it down."

"Ichi-nii," Yuzu called out, "do you think there's a girl that can swallow storms?"

He sighed. He was not in the mood for this argument. Ichigo had heard enough of it when they first left the Fire Nation, and they were going on almost three months on desertion. That's what he got, Ichigo supposed, for spending so much of their time on the run with nothing to keep them but fairytales and urban legends.

Ichigo was tired, sea-sick and about ready to pass out. Though, he still tried his best to be charitable, "It's just a legend, Yuz, no one can actually do that."

Not even a minute passed before his sister declared, "I think she can."

He can practically hear Karin's eyes roll. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Vaguely, Ichigo recalled that conversation as a woman stared right into his soul.

"Don't talk," she murmured, strangely soothingly. Her voice was soft but rough and deeper than he expected considering she was propped up on his chest and still as light as a bird, knee resting warningly against his throat. Ichigo toyed with the idea of simply throwing her off. But also – "The hell?" He couldn't move his hands, his entire body felt – "You're -"

The pressure of her knee against his throat increased warningly. "You don't listen do you?"

His gaze flitted from her eyes, the only visible thing on her face, and found himself startled that he couldn't make out anything else. It was like she appeared straight from the shadows, eyes bluer than the ice-caps that were starting to float their way as they neared the North Pole. Her eyes should have been the giveaway, and Ichigo blamed the lack of sleep on his slow to start brain, but he confirmed anyway, "You're a Waterbender."

Her head tilted just so. "Astute."

He tried to lift his hands and predictably they snapped back against the cot. He hadn't physically come across her type before, though Ichigo certainly traveled enough to recognize it; the unholy practice of blood-bending by the witches of the Water Empire.

He didn't realize he said it out loud when a ghost of a smirk lights her eyes, almost increasing the quality of the silver in her gaze as she informed, "Flattery won't get you anywhere."

As amused as she sounds, she definitely wasn't the welcoming committee, and if the Water Empire was trying to make it clear that he and his ship weren't welcome on their waters then message received. Waterbenders were rare enough, but those that could blood-bend were significantly fewer. That they sent one in the dead of night did not bode well at all.

"I come in peace." When she only tilted her head again, he added, "I'd raise my hands, but you know…."

She huffed through her nose before slipping off of him; her hold loosening just enough that he could raise his head to watch her, but do little else. "What the hell are you -?"

"Shut up and don't move." With an almost careless flick of her wrist, he was laid flat once more with a grunt.

The door popped open just enough to let the light from the lanterns in the hallway seep in through the crack, the barest illumination bright enough to confirm the size of the witch. Dressed like a ninja in all black with a hood covering her head and a mask covering the lower half of her face, her small frame – bird-like and agile – would make her the perfect spy – or assassin, depending on her mood.

If not for her eyes and her apparent skill in blood-blending, Ichigo would never have known she was Water Empire, especially when – as she slipped into the hallway. As soon as another shadow appeared, she flipped over in time with the swaying ground of the ship, her foot coated in an icy sheer just as it made contact with the person's head, and not a second later, she landed and moved on; the entire encounter almost completely silent if not for the sound of her opponent hitting the ground. Airbending principles with Firebending fighting style; what the hell?

"H-hey," Ichigo called out, "who the hell are you?"

She didn't even spare him a look before she proceeded down the passage, slamming someone else into the wall and nailing them in an icy cocoon that grips right through the wood of the wall.

The vessel tilted almost ninety degrees, and Ichigo swallowed the rise of bile in his throat.

Shit. Shit.

Wiggling futilely against the invisible restraints keeping him in place, Ichigo finally got the bright idea to burn her right out of his system.

Increasing his core temperature takes a lot more concentration when every few seconds the sounds of pained grunts, of people slamming into walls and floors, and then a heavy crash that sounded like it was coming from the engine room on the floor below his, ringing loudly all around him in warning.

Shit, what the hell is that witch doing?

"Ichi-nii!"

"Y-Yuzu!" He burns right through his cot and is out of his cabin like a shot – the air is still cool from her lingering presence with the ground littered with unconscious bodies of –  _wait, those aren't my men_.

"Yuzu, Karin," he called out, racing towards his sisters' cabin and running into people in the black and grey uniform Ichigo and his crew adopted when they deserted the Fire Nation in the hallway, except they definitely weren't members of his crew.

Punching through them is the only option he has with the limited space and the fact that they were on a wooden boat. In the flurry, the wooden walls quivered around him, forming finger-like branches that slam the rest of the men before Ichigo into unconsciousness. With a grunt, Chad appeared from around the corner. "We're under attack."

No shit, Ichigo wanted to say to his Earthbender right hand, but instead settled for, "Water Empire?"

"No, they're Aizen's."

Was that better or worse, he thought before deciding there was no time for that and proceeded through the passage, calling out for his sisters until just short of their door, it flew off its hinges along with two men in Fire Nation garb.

Still posed in her fighting stance, Karin relaxed her posture only slightly when they came into view. "What the hell is going on?"

"No time," he replied, "Yuzu -"

"Here," his youngest sister said, supporting what looked to be Inoue.

"She came in to warn us and wasn't watching her back," Karin said by way of explanation.

With a nod and a gesture to Chad, Ichigo ordered, "Watch them."

As usual, big brother - captain or not - Karin did not take instructions well and was at his tail when he continued into the hallway. Exhaling an annoyed sigh, he pushed her back just as they came into a clearing and was promptly charged at by three of Aizen's men.

Before either he or Karin could raise a hand, the open door let in a huge wave.

Not only were they swept away by it, like the sea had personally come into body slam them, but also tightened around two of them that tried to run down the corridor again, like a tentacle, before pulling them out.

Karin made a noise of disbelief before the witch was thrown into the wall closest to them, water rushing in to fill the hull at their ankles.

Wincing, she laid her palms open wide before crushing it closed and sending it slamming into the wall beside her - doing the same to her apparent opponent in Fire Nation armor.

It doesn't take more than a second to realize, "You're not on their side?"

Sending him a look of disbelief, she shoved him aside and produced an ice shield in the process with the water around them - catching a stray spear that was thrown their way in a network of interwoven snowflakes.

Unabashed, Karin stared in wonder. "So cool."

The witch didn't pause, moving her hand in a wide arc that sent the remaining men flying. She followed after them carefully, brushing the water back out of the hull with coaxing fingers before someone called out behind them, "Rukia, we've got a problem!"

She called back, "Can't you ever give me good news?"

"There's a cyclone forming ahead!"

"I guess not," she grumbled, before exhaling through clenched teeth.

What happened next makes Ichigo a thousand percent sure that she was definitely a witch, or at the very least out of her goddamn mind.

Ripping off her mask, she ran full tilt to the edge of the ship, vaulted over the boundary, and dived into the torrent.

"Holy – did she just -" Karin gaped.

There were no words left as the ship began to quiver and sway dangerously, knocking them against the walls and removing all ability to stand upright as water leaps and bounds into the ship and off it again.

The horizon wavers in the distance as the waves grow larger and then, as if the rising storm lost all will to live, everything sways gently back into place.

The water within the ship began to recede at their feet, and in return, the sea spat the witch out.

Still coughing, the pulling tide knocked her back against the wall. Lifting her head with a wince, she caught his eye.

Her skin was pale as the moon that made itself known overhead, hair as dark as night and eyes like twin Rigel stars. Her lips parted with a forced breath before briefly, her gaze shuttered as she tilted her head to the darkened sky.

Over Ichigo's shoulder, the same voice that called out earlier, said again, sounding bafflingly reprimanding, "You were cutting it real close, Rukia!"

She snorted, wincing against the cuts that Ichigo noted, ripped her black outfit in every direction. Opening her eyes a slit, the witch declared, "I should've drowned you when I had the chance."

Beside him, Karin spoke, voice tinged in awe, "Did…did she just swallow the storm?"


End file.
